


The Candelabra's Home

by Moon_Raccoon_exe



Series: Ignis and the Beast [3]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Beauty and the Beast AU, Candelabra!Prompto, Clock!Noctis, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, That sounds so weird with no context, hahaha
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-09
Updated: 2017-08-09
Packaged: 2018-12-13 01:18:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11749101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moon_Raccoon_exe/pseuds/Moon_Raccoon_exe
Summary: Side story for chapter 15 of Gladnis Beauty and the Beast AU fanfiction.Prompto has left Ignis and Noctis behind with the excuse of looking for Gladiolus, after receiving the news of his parents' destiny after 5 years of not hearing about them from a man that doesn't even know Prompto's related to what he has just said.Noctis, unlike Ignis, is not oblivious to the impact of the news. He goes to look for his friend, not buying his happy looks and words, and knowing Prompto may require of a little company, and someone to talk with.





	The Candelabra's Home

**Author's Note:**

> This is a mirror scene to the "Motel Roof Scene" in game, even some dialogues directly taken from there.
> 
> Side-story for chapter 15 of a Gladnis Beauty and the Beast AU. This doesn't work without that AU, but the AU works fine without this, hence the reason this is uploaded as a separate work.
> 
> The nickname "Plom-the-light" was invented and shared with me by orihime_maychan. Thanks lots! I hope you don't mind I used this, too, when I only asked to use Noctis' at some point later in the story.
> 
> Not many people agreed to wanting to read this side story, but those few who did seemed rather excited about it, and the excitement was so contagious I couldn't not do it.
> 
> Enjoy!

It took Noctis a while before finding his friend. 

After a while of walking around, the clock stopped in his way to take a little break and wonder how it could be that Prompto had gone so far in such little time. Then again, the candelabra had it easier to move around; he didn’t have these ridiculous short legs too distant from each other that had the clock waddling around, but rather one sole firm foot to jump around with. Not to say Prompto was quite…energetic, in contrast to Noctis’ spontaneous moments of laziness. Requesting for only some directions after parting ways with the human, Noctis walked through quite some hallways and a staircase up, and minutes went by before he could spot his friend at all.

Prompto was nearby another set of stairs. Instead of a wall, the staircase’s railing continued for some yards into the hallway. And there, sat at the edge of the floor, with the railing’s balusters behind him and the foot hanging above the stairs below, the candelabra was sat doing but stare to nowhere at all. Noctis stopped for a moment when he saw his friend, but soon enough took in a soft breath and continued waddling his way forwards. Once close, Noctis made sure from the distance he could fit through the balusters; there where Prompto had turned into a slim, thin object, Noctis was less narrow. He was rather thin for a clock, but still a shelf clock, nonetheless. For his luck, the balusters were separate enough, so he dared get closer and made his way through a pair of those; scratching himself a little to fully pull himself through, but not minding nor feeling any particular pain at all as he did, he was soon on the other side. There, he had to walk sideways not to fall down, until he was close enough.

As soon as he had made his way through the balusters, the candelabra turned, noticing his presence, but said nothing. Noctis was then with him and tried to sit down. He heard the candelabra warning him and asking him to not do it if he didn’t fit, but Noctis was soon enough sat at his side, with a sigh of relief from the walk he had to take to get there.  
“You okay, dude?” Prompto asked him, but Noctis only casually flicked a wrist with twice a ‘Yeah’. The candelabra smiled and chuckled. “Okay then” he nodded and stared away, again into the distance, the far wall across the hall they were facing. Prompto turned to look at him again. “Did you leave Specs with the paintings?”  
“What am I, the dumb prince?” the clock asked him. “Of course not. There’s compromising things there, huh?”  
“Yeah, lots of paintings of you” Prompto said with a low laugh. “And many of King Regis, and many other people.”  
“I’m guessing he didn’t see any of those, right?” Noctis asked him.  
“Nah” Prompto shook the head. “The best he got to see was a painting of Nyx. Took his time there.”  
“Can’t blame him; Nyx’s not particularly ugly, you know?” 

Prompto laughed and gave a low ‘Yeah’ of half agreement and half fun. Noctis, on his part, only smiled and rested the hands back on the floor. After the laugh had faded, there was silence for a moment. Only Noctis’ needles went on ticking. Some seconds into their sound, Prompto let out a soft but audible sigh.  
“You told Specs you’d go see what Big Guy’s doing” Noctis reminded him. “I’m guessing you didn’t find him? Because no way you lied to Specs to leave somewhere else like you’re trying to hide from him that you’re sad or something, right?”  
“A-ah, no…of course not” Prompto said with a weak voice. The head was slightly down, and he tried to force a smile but it was clear he could not do that. Noctis only stared at him with full attention and an innocent-looking stare of his big eyes. “You’re right. Didn’t find him, so…” Prompto forced a chuckle. “Just…decided to sit down for a while.”  
“Uh…” Noctis let out as if too lazy to say ‘I see’ and summed it up in that lone sound.

 

There was no word shared for a while. Nobody else wandered around that place, so it all was pretty much silent. It was after a while that the clock sighed.  
“Quite a surprise, Specs wanting to do something for Gladio, huh?” Noctis tried to offer some small talk.  
“Yeah” Prompto said with a little laugh. “The two are a mess. They’ve always been a mess, since they were trying to kill each other” yet another small chuckle. There was a little pause, but the candelabra retook the word almost immediately. “I never imagined it’d work out like this; that as soon as we stopped trying to get them to befriend, they started to befriend on their own. They insist not, but I think they’re starting to care ‘bout what the other thinks. Pretty crazy for having met during a death-or-life fight, huh?”  
“Who’d have thought” Noctis said and it sounded more like an agreement rather than a question.

“Specs is pretty quiet most of the time, but when he speaks he sure has quite something to say, huh?” Prompto asked, smiling at the distance. “I was pretty shook by the way he spoke of my paintings. Y’shoulda have heard. Always has nice things to say.”  
“I was more shook hearing him talk about Big Guy” Noctis added. “He sounded like trying to hide excitement or something.”  
“And what he said about the Nif invasion…” Prompto nodded at him, smile gone. “It was strange, to hear him talk ‘bout that.”  
“How so?” Noctis asked.  
“You know, it’s strange…how it seems that the curse didn’t erase that from people’s memories” Prompto started to explain, looking back at the distance. “That the Nifs invaded precisely only to take over the Citadel, and that people remember what they did but not why” he shrugged a bit. “A bit strange. How they seem to remember everything about it, except us. I had thought…” there was a pause. Noctis didn’t take his eyes off his friend and waited, but there was nothing. After a while, the candelabra sighed. “Actually, never mind.”

“Hey, you can’t just stop halfway” Noctis urged him with a tiny smile.  
“Yeah, I know” Prompto said with a laugh. Both stayed quiet for yet another while. Some moments later, the candelabra sighed as if to prepare himself, before continuing what he had been saying. “I had thought that the curse had not erased _me_ from people’s memories, too. I had thought it erased the memory of the throne family and all the royalty only, that I had nothing to do. You know, unlike everyone else in the castle, I’m a plebe. The only one” Prompto confessed to his friend, adding a nod somewhere among his words. The clock said nothing and only stared at him. “All this time, I had thought that maybe all the people I knew remembered me and wondered where I could have gone to, if they ever tried to look for me, how far they went…but turns that…I was forgotten, too. Nobody remembers the Argentum ever had a son.”

None of them said a word after that. Prompto was looking at his friend as if expecting an answer at the same time he hoped for Noctis to say nothing at all.  
“…is that what’s been bugging you?” the clock asked him rather softly but with yet another question hidden under that one. The candelabra gave him an expression of slight surprise for a moment, before he turned away. He smiled, but put the head down.  
“Is that why you followed me?” Prompto asked him, but took in a deep breath and answered himself. “It’s fine, Noct. I mean, I already was…” yet another pause. The silence lingered. Soon, the golden furniture looked at his friend again. The lights of his candles were but a tiny flame that would have died with the tiniest of gusts. “…yeah…sorry I got so emotional all of a sudden.”  
“Hey, you’re gonna leave me with questions?” Noctis asked him with another smile. The intention of his question was clear, and Prompto caught it immediately, grinning and looking away.

Both stayed quiet. The needles continued, and Noctis quietly moved a hand up to remove the longer one, about to block his sight. Prompto took in a deep breath and softly let it out; there was a very subtle tremble in it, but it did not go unseen by the clock.  
“…I guess…during all these years…I was already aware of that. Part of me already knew about my parents” Prompto said in almost a murmur. “It was pretty obvious. The invasion was quite…harsh. I guess I would’ve been more surprised if they’d told me they actually survived…” the candelabra looked again at his friend, the chin down and eyes following. “…pretty stupid, isn’t it? If we count it by seconds, I’ve been many, many hours more, maybe even days or months with Lady Lunafreya of Tenebrae or the very same King of Lucis himself in five years than I ever was with my parents in fifteen. Even since I was a child, I vaguely got to spend any time with them. We were more like roommates than a family. Seeing him once a month, Cor always was a thousand times more my dad than my dad. I barely knew my parents…we had a very poor relationship…” 

Suddenly, Prompto let out a trembling sigh and looked away. The clock, so far staring down at Prompto’s column to have the eyes somewhere, eventually pulled the gaze up to his friend’s profile view. No real eyes meant the literal lack of ability to cry. Yet, Noctis wondered if, had his friend had real eyes, would they be watering in that instant, or if it was only the voice that had cracked until breaking.  
“…so it’s pretty stupid. I have no reasons to mourn their…death. No reasons to be sad or anything…” the candelabra almost murmured again, the voice now but a thread. “…and yet…here I am, feeling so…so stupidly miserable…missing them so much, so stupidly much, with no reason…”

By the way his voice sounded, and the way his candles suddenly turned off, Noctis had no more doubts. If his friend had had real eyes, the clock would currently not have a single idea of what to do to clean the rivers off the freckled cheeks. In some way, Noctis was grateful they were but objects. Not because he would not have helped Prompto with the mess of tears, but rather because the mere mental image of the happy-go-lucky joker blond young man shattering and crying was…strange. Rather new. And merely heartbreaking. Not something Noctis wanted to see.  
“…I guess I also feel…this other selfish void…” the candelabra continued. “…I should be sad about their deaths, and I am, but…what finishes to bring me down is to know that the only home I ever had can no longer be my home.”

His voice had sounded calmer this time, but the subtle trembling was still present. He took a few moments before he looked again at the clock.  
“I know that there’s no answer to turn back to humans, so no reason for me to exit the castle again but…if you think about it, I’ve got nowhere to go now. No home to return to” Prompto explained. “The store now belongs to someone else, which means so does the house. Even if I could go and explain I’m Argentum son and that it belongs to me, nobody remembers me, anyway. I never existed to them. So even if I tried, I wouldn’t and couldn’t recover any of that” he continued, “and you could tell me I’ve lived five years in here, in the castle, but…truth is…I don’t belong here” Prompto looked away again with a tiny nod as if agreeing with himself. “I’m not a Crownsguard, or a Lord, or an attendant, not even a servant or the stable-boy. I’m a commoner. No matter how much time I’ve lived here, truth is I’m different to everyone else. Even our friends” Prompto continued reflecting, staring at the distance. “Unlike Gladio, I’m not good with people. The way he connects with them, he’s operating on a different level. Lady Lunafreya, gods…” he sighed with some sadness. “The Oracle herself. Princess of Tenebrae. Her healing powers, it’s amazing. Even Ignis, with such little time spent here, is more worthy of moving among royalty than I am; unlike him, I’m not smart, and I can’t cook to save myself, or do all the things he does. Even he knows how to fight. I, on my side…well, I only had a fleeting shooting course with Cor. Other than that, I’ve never been so useful or…worth at all.”

Noctis stayed quiet. He still was not sure how to feel at all; sure, he had seen Prompto having rough times, but this was possibly the heaviest. Never before had he heard him speak this much on something as negative. He said nothing and only waited to see if the candelabra had more to say. Soon enough, he discovered he had.  
“I usually don’t care about it because I have a blast with you all, guys, and I forget what I’m not” he admitted, looking again at his friend. “But then reality hits me like a splash of cold water, and I remember that I don’t belong. But I want to” eventually and as he spoke, his head had turned away once more, but his voice continued to calm down. “Imagine the curse is broken tomorrow. Can’t stay here, but I also have nowhere to go. I’ve got nowhere to call home, now. Nowhere I belong, no place to return.”

Prompto just looked at the distance, as if reflecting on thoughts completely alone. The clock was still looking at him, waiting. There was only the ticking of his needles to fill the silence. Second after second, the needle counted the seconds of a small wordless moment.  
“Overthinking much, aren’t you?” Noctis asked him with a little laugh. A bit startled and without looking his way, Prompto took a moment to process that before letting out a small laugh, even though it still sounded rather sad and bitter. The clock looked at him some more, smile still present. He looked at the candelabra and nothing else existed for a moment. Noctis sighed before speaking. “Think what you will, but I think you’re good enough to me.”  
“Huh?” Prompto looked at him, taken off-guard and not hiding his confusion. The clock still had not looked any other way that was not directly at his friend. 

“All this talk about how you don’t belong here, the hell are you talking about?” Noctis asked him in a bit of a hiss, totally incongruous with his soft expression and warm eyes. Prompto stayed quiet. He was looking at his friend with slightly widened eyes and the mouth a bit opened. The light of his candles came back, but so subtly it was barely noticeable.  
“Plom-the-light, you idiot” Noctis nagged, but his expression stayed as soft as before, subtle smile still on his face. “You’re my friend and that’s enough to make my home yours as well” the smile faded and he looked as Prompto as he said that. They stayed quiet, looking at each other. “And don’t you dare reject that. You should know better by now. You think I just make time and welcome home any old loser?”  
“Well, okay, no need to get so mad, dude” Prompto said with a little laugh. Noctis widened his smile, but that was all reaction he offered. After the little laughter faded, the candelabra looked away again, still smiling despite the sensitive air around. There was a moment of quiet, until the candelabra’s smile was gone as well, and the head had gone down inch by inch. “…seriously, though…thank you. For making some time for this loser. And…welcoming him in your home.”  
“ _Our_ home.” Noctis corrected him, sounding a bit harsh, once again incongruous, but the candelabra understood. “Anything else?”

It took Prompto some moments. Watching the surprise and sudden feelings in his friend, Noctis took in a subtle breath and decided to add a last thing.  
“I once heard my dad say something super cheesy like…something about how home is the people you care for and love and spend your life with, not a place” Noctis smiled at him, but a quick glimpse of embarrassment lit his eyes and he looked away, using a hand to scratch behind his head. “Or something, or whatever.”  
Prompto was only more shaken after that. He gave Noctis his pair of widened eyes again, still not knowing how to respond. The clock, on his part, turned to look at him again.  
“We’re friends, aren’t we?” he asked, softly. “Dad, the almighty King Regis the CXIII of his name, said that, not me. So whether you like it or not, I’m your friend and that means you’ve got a home already.”

The candelabra stayed quiet. He tried, but no word made it out of his mouth. He merely stayed in silence, watching his friend. A couple moments later, Prompto put the head down, closing eyes and mouth, and he nodded. Soon, the candelabra looked up again. At the time he did, the flames of his three candles grew to a much more normal and usual size. He smiled at Noctis.  
“Yeah” he murmured. His flames grew along the volume of his voice. “Thanks, buddy. Don’t know what got to me. Should’ve realized that sooner, right?” he gave a wider smile again and looked away. Noctis continued to watch his friend in silence. Prompto’s flames danced happily on top of his head and at the edge of his hands. Some moments into the silence, the candelabra nodded and let out an exhale of relief. “Feels good to get that all off my chest, though.”  
“Happy to hear” Noctis told him, as softly as before.  
“Alright” Prompto started to say and stood up with a small sigh from the movement. “I’m gonna keep on keeping on, the only way I know how.”  
“Yeah. You do that.”

Noctis was soon standing up as well. Prompto returned into the hallway quite quickly, but Noctis had to once again push himself through the balusters where he just barely could fit through.  
“What a place of choice to come mourn, by the way” Noctis commented, lifting up the mood even more. “You know, what if I get stuck in here? I’m a king, you know, I’m supposed to look kingly, how am I gonna do that if I get stuck in here? Hm? How?”  
Prompto laughed as response, reaching a hand closer to his friend to pull from him.  
“Yo, turn your lights off! I’m wooden, you know, what if you set me on fire? What kind of friend burns you down!? Turn them off!”

Prompto laughed even more.  
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry!” he apologized among laughter, turning off his candles and reaching again to take Noctis by the arm, pulling from him until the clock made it through the balusters. “See, you’re fine!”  
“Yeah, and I hope so are you” Noctis said while stretching a little, speaking as if though he was nagging or being a bit harsh, despite the softness of the voice (never stopping with the incongruence). He and Prompto stayed quiet again, looking at each other. The candelabra, for a moment, stared down with a bittersweet and moved smile, but soon enough his head returned up and he offered a happy look at his friend.  
“I’m fine” Prompto said softly at him. “And I’m home.”  
There was silence again. The clock looked at his friend and never once moved his eyes off him, gesture which was mirrored. Eventually, Noctis widened a smile for his friend, warm and friendly.  
If there had been tears this time, Noctis reflected, in this context, he would not have minded the sight. It was entirely different from the first time he thought about it. 

“Good” Noctis said with a little sigh and turned to face the hallway, starting to walk. Prompto followed and caught up with him, hopping his way at a side. “Speaking of home, what do you say we go slide down the staircase of the second floor?”  
“Bro, Gladio gets mad when we do that” Prompto laughed, none stopping in their way.  
“Precisely.”

Prompto laughed even more. He knew they should not be doing that.  
“Let’s do it!”

Then again, nothing could go wrong at all.  
Nothing that happened mattered or could go wrong, so long he could call this _'home'_.


End file.
